During the earliest stages of my nontraditional software engineering education, I would often sit down to code and place my computer on a table covered with books of poetry. I loved coding but drew my power and sustenance as a Black woman from the words of poets like Jamila Woods, Jericho Brown, and Fatimah Asghar. The apparent contradiction between my interests always left me with a tiny itch, somehow, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what the feeling was trying to tell me. I went on improving my coding skills while
This post first appeared on Elpha, a community for women in tech to talk candidly online” If you’re a woman (particularly a woman of color) in tech, you’ve probably felt it. That feeling that you’re the “only one” in the room. The feeling that you don’t belong, that you need to prove yourself, that you’re alone. According to a study by Leanin.org and McKinsey & Company, one in five women report being one of the only women in the room. In senior leadership, this is twice as common: 40% of women are the only
Arlan Hamilton — founder and managing partner at Backstage Capital — summarized best why investing in Black Female Founders (BFF) isn’t just important, but could produce high yields: “Less than 0.2 percent of all early-stage venture funding goes to Black women, while we make up approximately 8 per cent of the U.S. population and are one of the fastest-growing entrepreneur segments in the country,” Arlan wrote. “It is my firm belief that because Black women have had to make do with far less for centuries, equipping them with early-stage capital that is
Meet Carmen Bocanegra, a first-generation, Peruvian-American Senior UX Designer. In this interview, Carmen talks about her journey, explains why UX is so much more about the people than it is about the technology, how using twitter helped her career, and why working in UX can mean so many different things. TrussWorks is hiring on pocitjobs.com Tell us about your career path? I was a really curious kid. I asked a lot of questions. I had a love of science because my parents were both in the medical profession. I grew
Originally posted here by Wogrammer Rochelle Valdez is a one-of-a-kind leader, coder, and organizer. Despite obstacle after obstacle, she has been able to find success as a developer at Google. She grew up in the Philippines on the streets of Manila, and at only ten years old, her family moved across the world to a small town in east Texas. Expected to work in the healthcare industry Throughout her life, it was made clear by her community and family that she was expected to work in the healthcare industry. However,
Lauren Reeves received her Computer Science Engineering degree from the University of Michigan. She currently resides in Oakland and works at BlackRock on various technologies as a software engineer. Being very passionate about engaging more minorities in STEM fields, in her spare time Lauren serves on panels, speaks at conferences, writes a blog, teaches coding, and boxes. This article was originally published here by Women of Silicon Valley When did you know that you wanted to work in tech? I heard my first calling to tech when I was pretty
Originally posted by Wogrammer by here. “How would you explain your job to a 5-year old?” Shayna laughs, “I’m a rocket surgeon.” She declares her title with confidence, despite the lightheartedness of the question. As a child, Shayna grew up in the Northern Navajo Reservation near Cortez, Colorado. Every night the sky lit up with millions of stars, filling her with a sense of wonder and a love for exploration. Amidst this unbound, galactic plane, Shayna dreamt of becoming an astrophysicist. She begged her parents for a Pod Racer Lego
My birthday is in exactly six weeks. I wake up every night thinking about telling this story. So I am telling it now. Six months ago, I was living in New York and flew back home (San Francisco Bay Area, Redwood City) for a board meeting and to be part of an entrepreneur video series profile of me. Before the board meeting, I asked for an aspirin. I had a weird headache but I thought it was the travel. My board meetings are never stressful because I have great board
Abstract.com VP of Engineering, Rukmini Reddy, shares the pivotal events that helped shape her path and underpin her leadership philosophy. Originally published here. Yes, I said bad-ass. I went from being just another Indian school girl being taught in a convent, to being a VP of Engineering for three incredible companies in Silicon Valley. While having twin boys who are now 5. So, yeah. I lean into my badassery because I have worked very hard for it. Courage is one of my core values. But it wasn’t always that way.
Every year around 0.2% of business funding goes to Black women so last year when Joycelyn and I set out to raise £360k ($450k) whilst I had a very visible baby bump, we knew we’d have a serious fight on our hands… At this year’s London Tech Week, I was flicking through my notes and saw that a year ago we didn’t know the difference between VC and angel investment. Under a year after attending events to learn about investment, in an environment where young black women aren’t funded, we
